Volunteers

During the Festival and in the run-up to June/July, the Festival Committee is helped by a small army of volunteers without whom the Festival wouldn’t be possible. Volunteers are the ‘public face of the Festival’ – the people festival-goers are most likely to interact with (apart from the authors!) They contribute vitally to the whole experience.

If volunteering and getting closer to the Festival interests you, below are some of the roles needed.

Event Stewards

Event Stewards come for an evening or for all day, an afternoon or morning. They meet and greet members of the public at Festival events. They take tickets, manage queues, answer queries, give directions, move chairs (when needed) and help seat the audience. They usually sit in on the event and, if there’s a Q&A element, run round with mics for the audience. (You need to be happy going up and down steps in this role as some venues have raked seating!)

Author Liaison Stewards

We pride ourselves on offering authors an exceptional level of care and hospitality. Author liaison duties range from meeting an author at the railway station and chauffeuring to the Festival or their accommodation (full, clean driving licence required), ensuring they have a good supply of drinks and snacks, escorting from the Green Room to their event venue…and just about anything else (within reason!) to ensure our authors have a truly great experience at the Buckingham Literary festival.

Bookstall Stewards

When needed, especially at large book signing events, stewards assist the Festival Bookseller staff. This involves setting out the books beforehand, selling the books, managing the queue of people wanting to have books signed and then packing up afterwards. Full briefing is given, and there is always someone on hand to help if you have any queries.

Marketing Muscle

Throughout the year volunteers are needed to help with all aspects of general promotion from pinning up posters in and around Buckingham, dropping off leaflets and programmes to schools, shops and other supporters and generally helping spread the word about the Festival by word of mouth and social media.

Qualifications for all volunteer roles

No previous experience is needed but you will need to be:

Over 16

Enjoy dealing with people and have a calm, courteous approach to the public

Supportive of the Festival in its commitment to making events accessible and welcoming

Punctual and reliable

Practical and hardworking

Smart and well-groomed, and prepared to wear something that identifies you as part of the Festival team

Some Stewards need to be more active than others: pick the role which suits your needs.

Training and Rewards for Stewards

We provide a Festival Briefing in June, covering a range of issues including Health and Safety and Festival procedures, which all Stewards need to attend. All events will have a Festival Event Manager as well as stewards.
Stewards get in free to the event they are stewarding and get regular news updates on what’s happening at the Festival.